The new govt, security and economic challenges

Now that the six tumultuous months of political chaos are over and Afghanistan has finally a president-elect, the new government would have a plethora of challenges to deal with. The new government is getting a stagnant economy in inheritance. The national treasure is empty and the society has reached to the extent of mental breakdown. To successfully address all the challenges, which are posing serious threats to the development of the country, the new leadership will have to unite all citizens and rally them behind the new government. The most urgent issues are how to tackle with the growing insecurity and how to resuscitate the national economy. Until we have a robust economy the government cannot tame the raging militancy successfully. When Ghani and Abdullah signed a national unity government agreement, militants aligned with ISIS launched a horrendous offensive alongside Taliban fighters that has left over 100 people dead. Insurgents carrying the black flag of ISIS captured several villages in Ghazni province. This is what the Deputy Governor of the province, Ali Ahmad Ahmadi and Deputy Police Chief Gen. Asadullah Ensafi say. In an atrocious attack militants beheaded 15 family members of local police officers and as many as 60 houses were torched. So, the Taliban welcomed the new government with a deadly offensive. Tackling with the issue of terrorism is a nerve-cracking job, which will test the mettle of the new government. Here in Afghanistan just the government is changing but on international political stage too many things have been changing. None could have thought of Daesh—or ISIS to launch offensive in Afghanistan alongside Taliban, but now Ghanzni people say they saw masked men wearing camouflage who carried the black flag of the ISIS. Locals say that none of the militants spoke any local language. Their flag shows they were members of Daesh, but some Afghan analysts smell the rat. Since the attack comes in such a time when Punjabi Taliban declared their war in Afghanistan therefore the attack looked the work of Punjabi Taliban than militants linked to Daesh. When Daesh has too many options on its own Arab land why it would choose Afghanistan for its Jihad against the West? Al-Qaeda had picked Afghanistan for its global jihad because at that time it had no opportunity to wage its jihad against the West from Arab soil, but why Daesh should does the same when it has been already engaged in Syria and Iraq and capturing city after city. To deal with this new threat, the new government needs to be too much intolerant towards militancy particularly to those militants who don’t belong to Afghan soil. This current wave of militancy in Ghazni has stopped reinforcements from the Afghan National Army (ANA) and provincial police from reaching the area ambushed by Taliban. Earlier the Taliban couldn’t dare to show their presence in Ghazni as it was the first ever province where there took an anti-Taliban mass uprising, but the past few months of political deadlock turned the situation from favorable to unfriendly for security forces as militants have been seen while escalating their attacks. And it’s because of the past few months. However, it is worth satisfaction that the President-elect Ashraf Ghani has vowed to form a new military council under his direct chairmanship to monitor and coordinate on security developments. Unfortunately, during the past few months, security forces received serious casualties. Moreover, reviving a stagnant economy, which is highly dependent on foreign aid and donations, is a formidable challenge. Fighting corruption will also occupy major portion of time of the new government as uprooting it needs an extensive program as it’s not a one day job. Our national economy has seriously stalled and if the new government fails in reviving it the economy will contract more and more this year.